TSA Pre-Check Update
Hat tip to Travelblawg, who let us know that as of December 20th, 2013, the TSA will allow all active duty, reserve, and national guard military personnel will have access to TSA Precheck lanes at the over 100 airports which currently offer it. Until then, unless you already have TSA Precheck, only 10 current airports support this. This is huge! No more waiting in long security lines, and no more taking off your shoes, belt, jacket, and unloading your laptop and liquids into a separate bin; those things are not required in the Precheck lane!
Unfortunately, it will only apply to the servicemember and any children 12 and under; spouses are not included in these changes – they will need to get TSA Precheck separately (which I discuss here).
What should you do in preparation? On your CAC card, there is a number on the back called the DOD ID; write down that number. Log on to all your frequent flyer accounts, and under account information, there should be a tab called “Known Traveler ID”. Put your DOD ID number into that field, and after Dec 20th, it will say on your boarding pass (paper or electronic) that you are TSA Precheck, and the TSA personnel will direct you to that lane if the airport has it.
Also, according to Travelblawg, if you are a wounded service member travelling, “TSA wants to remind the American public about the Wounded Warrior Screening program. This program makes the overall experience for wounded service members as simple as possible. This includes personalized service and expedited screening to move through security checkpoints without having to remove footwear, light outerwear, jackets or head wear. Wounded warriors or their care coordinators can contact TSA Cares toll free at 1-855-787-2227 with details of the itinerary once flight arrangements are made with the airline.”
Bottom Line: Even more perks that we can take advantage of as servicemembers – make sure you add your DOD ID to your frequent flyer accounts (and sign up for accounts if you haven’t been!).
Hello Glenn. Hope all is well with you, great stuff as usual. With regards to these changes, any thoughts about potential problems with using a Trusted Traveler (Global Entry) number in the “Known Traveler ID” field on the airline websites and then presenting a Military CAC card to the TSA Travel Document Checker at the airport (presumably what many of us have been doing in the past)? As you know and in fact wrote about, this has actually worked very well until now, with the apparent situation of Military CAC Card holders NOT being subject to TSA “random, unpredictable screening measures”, i.e. presenting a Military CAC card resulted in expedited screening 100% of the time vice the 70% or 80% or 90% for everyone else. Wondering if after December 20, with incorporation of the DoD Identification Number into the system via airline websites, it might cause problems. Many thanks.
(BTW, thanks for your help last January. No problem at all with UA extending my Premier status by exactly 1 year due to my mobilization. Interesting (and gracious) though that instead of your experience with losing your SWU, when I contacted them upon my return asking for an extension, they deleted all 10 of my preexisting upgrades which had expiration dates of 1/31/14 and reissued 10 new ones (4 RPU and 6 GPU) with expiration dates of 11/30/14. Thanks again.)
@ Harry – No, I don’t think you’ll have any problem “doubling up”. I have had United or Alaska tag me as Pre-Check and showed my CAC card and they have no issues except for early in the program when one TSA agent had never seen two Pre-Check approvals for one pax! I still think that we’ll be a 100% go. You would hope that TSA would extend the military a little extra confidence that we are trusted. Really glad to hear about you expereince post-deployment!
The problem is that this doesn’t actually work. I am active duty, traveling on orders, currently sitting in LAX, and was just told that I was NOT cleared for TSA PreCheck even though I followed all of the DTS procedures as given above and in the DTS system.
Fortunately, I never trust the government to do anything they say, or else I might have been late…
I promise this is not an April Fool’s joke.
Update to TSA Precheck program:
Beginning 15 April the program will now be open to DoD civilians as well as Coast Guard civilians.
http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/news.cfm?ID=18
@ Charles – Wow, that is huge. They just opened up Pre-Check to a bunch more folks with that move.